Cons

Plus500 is a CFD service that was founded in 2008 and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission and by the Australian Securities and investments Commission.

It has one of the leading platforms and is widely known for its proprietary and innovative trading platform where traders can choose from a wide selection of financial tools.

Traders are provided with multiple options giving them total free reign in using the mobile application version of the platform, accessing it via the internet using browsers (Web-Trader version) and of course, its downloadable version that you can use in your personal computers and laptops.

Creating an in-house developed platform is such a very bold move but does it deliver?

Want to know more about Plus500?

Let’s continue exploring the vast potentials, the advantages we get to have with Plus500 in the succeeding sections of this review. They are all meant to keep you wondering and to keep you interested.

The simple plain truth is…

This CFD service is not perfect but any one of us can take the lead in learning from these advantages and disadvantages and how these will work for us, not against us.

Registration 10/10

In general, Plus500 accepts users from different countries except for few including the USA, Canada, Vietnam and Thailand.

Unfortunately, they don’t have a complete list even if you check their website but if you want to make sure if you’re country is supported, you just need to access their website and try to register from there.

It will detect your location and you will see a notice if your country is supported or not.

So how to sign-up with Plus500?

Opening an account with Plus500 won’t require you to spend much of your time. In fact, the initial stage will only require just 2 details: your email and your desired password.

Account Types 8/10

Another unique move that Plus500 have had initiated is that the only kind of account you can open or create with them is an individual account.

Everybody here are all the same. Everybody holding an individual account gets to enjoy the same benefits and perks since there are no tiered memberships.

No fancy words like corporate, premium, and company accounts that makes your head spin, and breaks the coffers, which are in real world terms require large sums of money to open.

This rational simplification enables opening a trading account with Plus500 more attractive, more appealing, making the brokerage company well-liked by many people from all walks of life.

What’s the big deal?

Their entrepreneurial approach makes them palatable to the masses, to the public who have been waiting for this kind of arrangement, opening doors to many so to speak, which for a long, long time never existed.

It is no secret as you will be able to see in their FAQ page that those people who wish to create an account are limited to opening one individual account with Plus500.

A second account is possible?

They encourage you to give your total focus on one account, not to multiple accounts that might diminish and might affect your passion and deadens your enthusiasm your enthusiasm and will sure drain you out of your most precious energy.

Here’s what you need to know:

It will be a balancing act keeping tabs of your trades on two separate trading accounts but you could do request to open another individual account and this will be subject to the approval of Plus500.

Please note that in case your request to create a second individual account has been approved, you cannot transfer funds between your two accounts.

After opening an individual account, you also gain access to the demo account but of course, no one would like staying in this mode all the time. We are in the real world where money makes the world go round so you need to step out of your comfort zones so you’d would want to level up and use the Real Money mode of the platform.

But in order to reach this stage, you need to have your account verified. No one is exempted to undergo this very essential procedure. If you’re unable to complete the verification process, you are therefore not allowed to use the Real Money mode.

The following are needed for identity verification:

A government-issued ID or identification document showing all of the itemized information below:

Your photo

Your identity number

Your complete name

Your birth date

The ID/document’s expiry date

A document showing proof of residency, conspicuously showing your full name and address. This residential verification document should be issued by a financial institution, utility company, government agency or a judicial authority and can be one of the following:

Bank statement

Credit card statement

Electricity bill

Water or gas bill

Council tax bill

Tax letter

Phone bill

Cable or television services bill

Internet bill

Demo Account 10/10

A lot of us are very aware of creating accounts, maybe for a phone app, an online magazine subscription and an avalanche of enticing offers called unlimited usage.

But knowingly at the back of our minds, we already are set for unmet expectations for we already know that there’s nothing that can be used for free.

And that’s just sad

Sooner or later, the free use will expire and we have to decide if we really want to shell out some real funds in order to continue using that specific online service.

The cool thing is…

Plus500’s demo account does not expire. You can use it anytime and anywhere you like.

Plus500 demo account

Illustrative prices only

Good news:

You would not burn hard earned cash when you use your demo account which is funded with $10,000 worth of virtual cash to spend as you try to get familiar with your trading account and get a real-time feel on how you would like to get your ears wet in the world of trading.

Next…

And as soon as your funds go down to $200, it will automatically go back to $10,000 and you can use it as many times as you want without any worries that it will expire very soon.

Yes, you read that right

It won’t as of the time of writing unlike with others whose demo accounts can only last for one week long only.

Beginners and long-time traders can mine the educational and training benefits of the demo account, for beginners will have the chance to become familiar with the platform.

By doing trades and spending virtual money on trades that use real-time accurate quotes, you can either be conservative or liberal on how you will spend your virtual money on a specific asset.

In addition to that

If you’re a beginner, it is advisable that you focus only on a handful of assets. 2 or 3 is the maximum, for you have to develop yet your trading plans and strategies.

The simple truth is…

Everybody have to start from zero and even experienced traders know that very well.

Payment Methods 10/10

Funding your Plus500 account is quick and easy, requiring less time thinking of what to do and how to do it.

In fact…

It is a no fuzz task that could be done using standard payment methods which are truly uncomplicated and simple.

This would not cause you any trading delays nor will it affect your trading plans and strategies. No headaches, nothing to worry about and a no-brainer. That’s how ridiculously easy it is.

Plus500 deposit page

The following are the payment methods that you can use for your Plus500 account:

Debit and credit cards – MasterCard or Visa are accepted. Please take note that there might be some limitations per region when you are using your credit or debit card so, always check first with your respective banks. Additionally, if it’s your first time transacting with Plus500, you will be required to submit some documents proving ownership. This is just a one-time verification process.

Digital wallets – PayPal and Skrill are supported. Take note that you must be logged in to your respective digital wallet accounts in order to make the necessary deposits.

Bank transfers – Also known as Wire transfer, this is an established and also a reliable form of funding your Plus500 account. However, compared to other deposit methods which process the funds immediately, the processing time for this payment method may take 1 to 3 business days.

But there’s a catch

Verification of the source of your funds is also required and needed when making a deposit.

To prove the legitimacy of ownership of the funds deposited to your Plus500 trading account, you may be asked to provide a copy or scan of one or more of the following documents (depending on the payment method you used):

Front face of your debit/credit card

Bank/credit card statement

Fact:

The above standard verification processes are followed and implemented by financial institutions like banks, insurance companies, indexes among others throughout the globe.

No one is exempted from this strict rule and regulation if you want to engage in the trading business.

Minimum Deposit 8/10

It is a known fact that for beginners and newbies alike in the trading industry, money would always be a main concern.

To a certain few, it might not a limited resource but to the rest, to a lot of people, remaining liquid at all times is a daily challenge.

There are other brokerages that require a huge sum of money in setting-up an account thus limiting opportunities to trade for those who are interested to test the waters of the trading business.

Let’s face it…

Not everybody owns a business and keeps a good sum of money in their bank accounts.

What makes Plus500 stand out is that the amount of deposit needed to open an account will not require you to borrow nor sell your possessions.

This is to make a point that Plus500 is for traders, beginners or professional traders, allowing people from different walks of life to get a fair share, leveling the brokerage industry’s playing field, which for only $100, an amount to set up a trading account is way below the deposit requirements of other brokers.

This is very encouraging and a welcome relief to many who would like to try.

Would this make a dent or difference for serious traders, it may not be an issue for they are very likely to continue depositing after their initial deposits, for their business is to trade.

Here are the very basic steps on how to deposit money:

Access the Funds Management on the menu, click on Deposit and choose your preferred payment method from the list.

Next, fill in the required fields and click on Submit.

Please bear in mind that specific deposit channels like PayPal, Debit/Credit Cards and Wire Transfers have their own minimum deposit level.

We highly advise you to talk first or make a phone call to your credit card providers and banks to clear out any misunderstandings prior to funding your account.

Platforms 9.5/10

What distinguishes and sets Plus500 from the rest of their competition is that they developed without the help of any third-party providers their engaging and easy-to-use platform.

To begin with…

In the highly cut-throat and competitive world of brokerages, what is highly admirable with Plus500 is that they independently developed their own set of platform instead of soliciting the services and depend on third-party service providers.

Below are the platforms that they offer as of this writing:

Web Trader

Windows 10 Trader

Android App

iPhone / iPad

Windows Phone App

Just a word of advice:

Ensure that your smartphones or tablets meet the minimum requirements so that you can successfully download the mobile app.

Generally, the apps will work on most devices unless your unit is over 10 years old.

Financial institutions are very strict and do always keep their guards high with regards to their platform’s stability, confidentiality, proprietary and security.

With Plus500’s highly customized platform, they got to receive a whopping perfect score on our chart for this criteria alone.

Design 10/10

The look and feel are all seamless and uniform. No way you will get lost every time you switch accessing their platform via the internet, using your personal computer or through your phones like an iPhone or an Android smartphone operating system.

Getting familiar and the ability not to be confused nor get lost on its interface is surely a win-win factor for traders who are taking the trading business seriously.

And another thing…

As you see how the website looks, there are lots of white spaces. Having an off-white background and easy-to-read fonts, their minimalist approach is geared towards to focusing only to trading.

Whether you are in Real Money mode or Demo mode, you get to browse through and scan the whole platform without any interference or any hindrance.

Plus500 has creatively adapted such a minimalist approach for it is very practical and free from trimmings that is highly applicable in websites and platforms alike in the vast worldwide web, mobile applications and downloadable versions of applications.

Just take a look at the three platforms below:

Plus500 Web Trader platform

Illustrative prices only

Plus500 iOS app

Plus500 Android app

Illustrative prices only

See how similar the themes and the arrangement of the menus are? This makes it convenient for you to switch from one platform to another without the need to adjust or familiarize yourself anymore.

And if that’s not enough…

No way the internet-based version nor the downloadable versions will eat up precious system resources.

The platform appears and loads up immediately showing no visible form of slowing down nor distracting glitches making the platform user experience smooth and engaging.

With 4G and 5G internet speeds now available, brokerage companies are highly scrutinized for their real-time and of course their loading speeds and the good news is that Plus500 did not disappoint.

For this, we are giving Plus500 a perfect Design score.

Tradable Assets 9.6/10

Who would ever resist if you will be given lots and lots of trading opportunities. The more opportunities you get to explore, the more you can diversify your trading portfolio.

Plus500 has a whole gamut of instruments and they have covered a selection of categories:

Forex

Currencies are staples in the trading industry and Plus500 offers the most popular currency pairings

This includes the most liquid and heavily traded with the likes of EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, AUD/USD, USD/CAD and NZD/USD.

They also offer other currency pairings which you can explore freely on their platform.

Commodities

With Plus500, there are a wide selection of commodities to choose from.

You can invest not only on the most popular ones like oil but other varieties such as Brent oil, heating oil, gasoline, low sulphur gasoil and natural gas.

They also offer gold and other precious metals including silver, copper and palladium.

You can also trade on soft commodities such as coffee, corn, cocoa, soybeans, sugar and wheat.

Indices

Their indices have 2 groups:

The Country Indices category has most of the popular international indices including Germany 30, USA 500, USA 30, Japan 225, ASX 200, Netherlands 25, Swiss 20 and US-TECH 100.

On the other hand, the Sector Indices is a unique asset type which is not offered by other brokers out there. These specialized indices track the performance of specific sectors so you can spread out your potential profit/loss via a single instrument rather than selecting stocks.These are currently the available sector indices from Plus500:

Cannabis Stock Index

UK Brexit High 50 Index

Crypto 10 Index

China Internet Giants Index

NYSE FANG+ Index

Lithium & Battery Index

Gaming Giants Index

Real Estate Giants Index

Shares

You can trade shares from all popular markets in the UK, USA, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, Ireland, Australia, Singapore, Spain, Austria and more.

In addition to that…

You can also invest on popular cannabis shares including Aurora Cannabis, Tilray, Cronos Group, GW Pharmaceuticals, Canopy Growth and Aphria.

Minimum Lot Size 9/10

Plus500 has a lot size of 0.05 which is why it is getting a high score.

The standard lot size is equal to 100,000 units of currency for Forex trading. Thus, when we compute it, 100,000 x 0.05 is equal to .50 cents.

Fact:

This is only a general guideline giving you an idea but this might vary depending on your brokerage’s definition of a standard lot.

Plus500’s lot size is low, meaning it is less risky requiring lesser amount of money whenever you make an order.

This is highly recommended for it will help clients not to be fully invested on a certain currency thus, enabling them to spread out their deposits so that they can order others.

It would be more practical and easier to enter and exit a Forex trade with lot size like 0.05.

Spreads 9.5/10

A pip is an acronym for “percentage in point” and is defined as the difference between the prices of a currency pair. These changes may be for the advantage of one currency at the expense of the other or vice versa.

Pip values are very important every time you want to enter into Forex trading. The higher the pip, the higher your chances you earn more from a successful trade so always remember to put in your mind the right timing whenever you decide that you want to enter and exit a Forex trade.

Plus500’s spreads are considered to be tight and in to be in the upper class amongst its competition in the brokerage industry.

Quotes Accuracy 9/10

Positions especially in live trading are very essential. It is the life-blood of traders, especially the very serious live traders.

Moreover…

Positions determine whether a trade is a success or a failure, thus hand in hand with positions quoting accuracy must at all times be dependable.

There’s no if’s or but’s here. No one wants to be scammed, duped nor fooled by giving you old and inaccurate information.

Get this:

The most in-demand stocks get to swing up and down in a very short span of time and the delay or much worse, the absence of live quotes would prove disastrous to sane and logically minded live traders.

Plus500 quotes accuracy

Illustrative prices only

The good news is…

Plus500 is at the forefront of technology, thus real-time quotes are provided day in and day out and there are no re-quotes.

Price movements or so called dramatic price fluctuations is a common fare in the financial markets so better stick with Plus500 who has your back for they really guard their trustworthiness and credibility in terms of quote accuracy.

No doubt, this broker deserves a high score.

Withdrawal Time 10/10

We cannot discount that availability of funds is one of the most fundamental requirements in live trading and when this fund which are rightfully ours do not come at its most appropriate time, we get frustrated.

And who wouldn’t be?

Unfortunately, as practiced by other brokers, we may not really know the underlying reasons and circumstances on why some brokers tend to intentionally delay the processing of withdrawals that clients have had requested.

This practice is unacceptable and unfair to whoever hear and read this kind of malpractice and injustice, no one has the right hold on to and be in possession of other people’s money.

When it comes to withdrawals, Plus500 can practically erase this kind of doubt for its potential and loyal clients.

With the standard turn-around time of 3 days, withdrawal requests are processed on time.

It may not be the fastest but it’s still a quick way of handling withdrawal requests.

Trustworthiness is a badge of honor for Plus500 knowingly and proactively assuring its clientele will get to receive the money that are rightfully and truly owned by the respective clients.

At this point, you will realize how Plus500 takes their clients seriously.

In this regard, Plus500 gets to earn a notable score in this category.

Customer Support 9.5/10

Questions, queries and inquiries all mean the same and are waiting for answers, and usually the need to be immediate.

Nothing sucks when you discover that the well-written and well-intentioned email you seriously pondered upon, thinking that your query will get to receive the utmost attention was simply set aside or on a worst case scenario, gets to be totally ignored.

No one would let go, especially when it involves money until they get to receive the answer they truly deserve.

Knowing that a company you are patronizing and accustomed with is really taking you seriously is a great motivation in continuing business with.

This will surely mean a lot to you. To be given the right answer at the right time without any unreasonable delays and that’s how Plus500’s customer support is up to the task as they truly met our expectations.

Plus500 can be reached using two channels: though email and live chat.

So how was it?

Emails that are queued get to be answered averagely within ten minutes. Based on our personal experience, we were able to exchange emails with their support team within such timeframe.

Plus500 email contact form

There’s also the option to get in touch with them via live chat. This however is only accessible when you’re logged in to the platform. It is conveniently placed near the lower right corner of the screen just as how most live chat interfaces are placed.

Plus500 live chat

Illustrative prices only

From both channels, we find their responses free from any form of gibberish, giving us concise and truthful answers to our queries, making the experience a breeze as we started and ended our discussion.

We could say that this service is of the highest caliber. The high quality customer service that we were looking for and we were pleasantly surprised at how they diligently attended to our questions and professionally and efficiently catered to us.

Unfortunately…

The only downside here is that there is no phone support but this is actually a minor issue for us since the other options are a lot more convenient to use and won’t cost you anything as compared to international phone calls.

But the silver lining is:

You can also take a look at their FAQ section. It’s a very informational page and has detailed answers to most of the client concerns or issues so it’s worth checking out.

Plus500 FAQ page

For this, it is no surprise that we have given Plus500 a high score for an excellent customer support.

Credibility 9.6/10

Plus500 is regulated and controlled by financial authorities fully assuring its traders that they are partnering in the trading business a company that has passed and strictly complied with their rules, regulations and guidelines.

Aside from this, they are also praised by a lot of traders for having competitive spreads and no commissions on any transactions.

Here’s a fact:

Some of their biggest competitors charge different commissions for trading on different share categories depending on the country or market but with Plus500, their clients can trade with 0 commissions.

This can be easily proven by the good number of positive feedbacks that you can find on dedicated forex trading sites, forums and reviews.

Checkout these comments that we found online:

Credibility is a serious business with Plus500 and they will not put into waste a decade long pursuit of excellence and stability, for this they wholehearted deserve an excellent credibility score.

Regulation and License 10/10

Knowing that a broker is regulated means that they are operating under the strict guidelines that were set by these financial authorities and the good news is that Plus500 has several licenses:

Plus500AU Pty Ltd (ACN 153301681), licensed by:ASIC in Australia, AFSL #417727, FMA in New Zealand, FSP #486026; Authorised Financial Services Provider in South Africa, FSP #47546. You do not own or have any rights to the underlying assets. Please refer to the Disclosure documents available on the website.

Conclusion 9.5/10

With its more than a decade of operation and an established reputation which is a great feat by itself, Plus500 managed to attract a good number of followers all across the globe with an advanced platform that was honed and developed by their in house talents.

This suite of platforms are stable and free from any form of interference and influence from outside parties.

This makes their platform unique, totally protected and advantageous for beginners and well-experienced traders, with its ease of use, simplifying the processes of forex and CFD trading, not to forget their dynamic spreads and their more than ample choices of 2000 plus instruments.

Most importantly…

No one could simply ignore that and of course their praise-worthy professionalism and efficient customer support team. This is such a breath of fresh air in a world where excellent customer service is seriously hard to find like a pin on a haystack.

Plus500’s corporate model or so-called economic paradigm, being unique in the ever-changing world of brokerages is a trailblazer. It’s a no-brainer to learn that other brokerage firms are copying their successful and credible model.

Surely a global brand like Plus500 is continuously making its mark in setting up a higher standard worth following and emulating.

Bottom line?

With its sterling performance, as compared with other brokerage firms basing on the major attributes laid down by our team here at Real Forex Reviews, we are no doubt recommending Plus500 as one of our top picks for forex and CFD trading.

I always notice that warning “Your Capital is at Risk” from Plus500. That is the reason why I am still with this broker, because they give you a warning and they comply religiously with all the requirements set upon them by their regulators.

I read about an article regarding bonuses in forex trading, and it implied that there should be no bonuses rendered for trading forex in any forex broker online. So you will rarely find brokers that offers such.

Yes, I agree. The webtrader platform is much, much faster now. Also, it’s also worth mentioning that they currently have a $25 no-deposit bonus for new clients so for those who are planning to trade with Plus500, be sure to avail this promo.

I have to say thumbs up for this broker. They have made a lot of improvements especially with their platforms. Now they have apps and software for iOS and Android operating systems. They are able to keep up with the current technology trends for trading.

ABOUT OUR SITE

Our team of financial experts have years of experience in the foreign exchange markets and can guide you into focusing on the more important factors to look at in selecting a forex broker to sign-up for.

And we don’t just look at the numbers here. We go beyond the quantities or amounts to make a real and measurable review that is based not just on the pros but also on the cons.